Men are Needed for Gender Equality at Work

Because the great majority of workplace leaders are male, greater gender equality requires the active participation of men. Although 88 percent of men surveyed in 2019 said they wanted to help women advance, progress has been slow at best. For example, in 2024 the gender pay gap increased for the second year in a row, the US Census found, with women’s earnings at just 80.9 percent of men’s. There are both barriers and strategies to increase men’s active support of gender equity in the workplace.

The good news is that most Americans (70 percent of women and 78 percent of men) surveyed believe women are getting more well-paid jobs than they did 20 years ago, Pew Research found in 2024. However, 18 percent of these people believe that the gains have come at the expense of men. Where most women see equality as justice, some men might see it as a threat to their status.

Another challenge to increasing men’s advocacy for gender equality is that many men believe they are already excelling in this area. “While 77 percent of men reported doing ‘everything they can’ to support gender equality at work, only 41 percent of women agreed men are doing so; and 60 percent of women and men agree it’s still rare to see men speak out against discrimination against women,” a 2019 survey found.

One explanation for this gap is a lack of awareness among men about what women truly face in the workplace. Although the burden of educating men shouldn’t be entirely on women, implementing structured one-on-one conversations with prompts can help, David G. Smith et al write in the Harvard Business Review (HBR). Hearing the experiences of a female colleague can help open men’s eyes to the toll on women of being interrupted, mansplained to, or other microaggressions, the balancing act of avoiding backlash, and more. Once their awareness grows, men should share what they learned with other men. They should also speak up when they witness discrimination.

But women aren’t alone in in worrying about potential backlash. Men may have anxiety about saying the wrong thing or having people misinterpret their good intentions. This might keep them from speaking up when they see a female colleague be interrupted or slighted. “[I]n relative terms, these fears are not that consequential….there is no evidence of men being fired of physically threatened for speaking up against discrimination,” Colleen M. Tolan and Lisa S. Kaplowitz write in HBR. “Instead there is evidence that masculine anxiety is hurting both men and women.”

It is the responsibility of the employing organization to institute the cultural change that leads to greater equality. To achieve this, it can be effective to promote the exchange of experiences rather than of ideas, pursuing understanding rather than agreement, Tolan and Kaplowitz write in The Conversation. That men fear status loss and that women face barriers can both be true. “[D]iscomfort is often necessary for growth…and encouraging thoughtful, open and honest discussions about sensitive topics and potential fears can help foster transparency and build trust,” Tolan and Kaplowitz write.

Photo by John Vachon, 1941 (Library of Congress)

Organizations should also show that both men and women can benefit from a more equitable workplace. “Leaders should…frame equity as essential to team and business success – and ground conversations in metrics that show how inclusion drives outcomes,” Tolan and Kaplowitz write. In addition, “By promoting policies such as hybrid work and parental leave that benefit everyone, workplaces will attract and retain a more diverse workforce, which leads to greater innovation.”

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